Current page: 6 (book has 9 pages total) [available reading passage: 7 pages]
Sultan Abdul Hamid I's love for a harem concubine named Rukhshah was so great that he himself became a slave to this girl.
Here is a letter from the Sultan begging Rukhshah for love and forgiveness (the originals of all his letters are kept in the library of the Topkapi Palace Museum).
“My Rukhshah!
Your Abdul Hamid calls to you...
The Lord, the creator of all living things, has mercy and forgives, but you left your faithful servant, me, whose sin is so insignificant.
I'm on my knees, I beg you, forgive me.
Let me see you tonight; kill if you want, I will not resist, but please hear my cry, or I will die.
I fall at your feet, unable to bear it any longer.”
Also love worthy of being preserved for centuries, like the love of Sultan Suleiman and Roksolana
The Bukhara emir Seyid Abd al-Ahad Bahadur Khan (reigned 1885–1910), according to Russian travelers who visited him, had only one wife, and he kept a harem more for show.
There were other examples in history.
Rights of a Muslim wife
According to Sharia law, the Sultan could have four wives, but the number of slaves was not limited. But from the point of view of Islamic law, the status of the Kadin Efendi (the Sultan's wife) differed from the status of married women who had personal freedom. Gerard de Nerval, who traveled in the East in the 1840s, wrote: “A married woman in the Turkish Empire has the same rights as we have and can even prohibit her husband from taking a second wife, making this an indispensable condition of the marriage contract […] Don’t even think that these beauties are ready to sing and dance in order to entertain their master - in their opinion, an honest woman should not have such talents.
The Turkish woman could well have initiated a divorce herself, for which she only had to present to the court evidence of her mistreatment.
The most famous women of the Ottoman Empire
It is safe to say that Hurrem Sultan, who lived during the heyday of the Ottoman Empire, during the era of the famous Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, heads the list of the most famous women of the Ottoman dynasty. Historians continue this list in this order: after the famous Hurrem, or Roksolana, aka La Sultana Rossa, comes Nurban - the wife of Hurrem’s son, Sultan Selim I; followed by the favorite concubines of the Ottoman sultans - Safiye, Mahpeyker, Hatice Turhan, Emetullah Gulnush, Saliha, Mihrishah, Bezmialem, who received the title of mother of the sultan (queen mother). But Hurrem Sultan began to be called the Queen Mother during her husband’s lifetime, before their son ascended the throne. And this is another consistent violation of traditions that followed the first - when Sultan Suleiman made Hurrem his official wife. And only a select few are allowed to break age-old traditions.
Ottoman monarchs from Osman I to Mehmed V
Ottoman Empire. Briefly about the main thing
The Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299, when Osman I Gazi, who went down in history as the first Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, declared the independence of his small country from the Seljuks and took the title of Sultan (although some historians believe that for the first time only his grandson, Murad I).
Soon he managed to conquer the entire western part of Asia Minor.
Osman I was born in 1258 in the Byzantine province of Bithynia. He died a natural death in the city of Bursa in 1326.
After this, power passed to his son, known as Orhan I Ghazi. Under him, the small Turkic tribe finally turned into a strong state with a strong army.
Four capitals of the Ottomans
Throughout the long history of its existence, the Ottoman Empire changed four capitals:
Seğüt (first capital of the Ottomans), 1299–1329;
Bursa (former Byzantine fortress of Brusa), 1329–1365;
Edirne (formerly the city of Adrianople), 1365–1453;
Constantinople (now the city of Istanbul), 1453–1922.
Sometimes the first capital of the Ottomans is called the city of Bursa, which is considered erroneous.
Ottoman Turks, descendants of Kaya
Historians say: in 1219, the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan fell on Central Asia, and then, saving their lives, abandoning their belongings and domestic animals, everyone who lived on the territory of the Kara-Khitan state rushed to the southwest. Among them was a small Turkic tribe, the Kays. A year later, it reached the border of the Konya Sultanate, which by that time occupied the center and east of Asia Minor. The Seljuks who inhabited these lands, like the Kays, were Turks and believed in Allah, so their Sultan considered it reasonable to allocate to the refugees a small border fief-beylik in the area of the city of Bursa, 25 km from the coast of the Sea of Marmara. No one could have imagined that this small piece of land would become a springboard from which lands from Poland to Tunisia would be conquered. This is how the Ottoman (Ottoman, Turkish) Empire will arise, populated by the Ottoman Turks, as the descendants of the Kayas are called.
The further the power of the Turkish sultans spread over the next 400 years, the more luxurious their court became, where gold and silver flocked from all over the Mediterranean. They were trendsetters and role models in the eyes of rulers throughout the Islamic world.
The Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 is considered the last major crusade of the Middle Ages, which was never able to stop the advance of the Ottoman Turks in Europe
Seven periods of the empire
Historians divide the existence of the Ottoman Empire into seven main periods:
Formation of the Ottoman Empire (1299–1402) - the period of the reign of the first four sultans of the empire: Osman, Orhan, Murad and Bayezid.
The Ottoman Interregnum (1402–1413) was an eleven-year period that began in 1402 after the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Angora and the tragedy of Sultan Bayezid I and his wife in captivity by Tamerlane. During this period, there was a struggle for power between the sons of Bayezid, from which the youngest son, Mehmed I Celebi, emerged victorious only in 1413.
The rise of the Ottoman Empire (1413–1453) was the reign of Sultan Mehmed I, as well as his son Murad II and grandson Mehmed II, ending with the capture of Constantinople and the destruction of the Byzantine Empire by Mehmed II, who received the nickname "Fatih" (Conqueror).
Rise of the Ottoman Empire (1453–1683) – the period of major expansion of the Ottoman Empire's borders. Continued under the reigns of Mehmed II, Suleiman I and his son Selim II, and ended with the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna during the reign of Mehmed IV (son of Ibrahim I the Crazy).
The Stagnation of the Ottoman Empire (1683–1827) was a 144-year period that began after the Christian victory at the Battle of Vienna forever ended the Ottoman Empire's ambitions of conquest in European lands.
Decline of the Ottoman Empire (1828–1908) – a period characterized by the loss of a large number of territories of the Ottoman state.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922) is the period of reign of the last two sultans of the Ottoman state, the brothers Mehmed V and Mehmed VI, which began after the change in the form of government of the state to a constitutional monarchy, and continued until the complete cessation of the existence of the Ottoman Empire (the period covers the participation of the Ottomans in the First world war).
Historians call the main and most serious reason for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire the defeat in the First World War, caused by the superior human and economic resources of the Entente countries.
The day the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist is called November 1, 1922, when the Grand National Assembly of Turkey adopted a law dividing the sultanate and the caliphate (then the sultanate was abolished). On November 17, Mehmed VI Vahideddin, the last Ottoman monarch and the 36th in succession, left Istanbul on a British warship, the battleship Malaya.
On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, which recognized the independence of Turkey. On October 29, 1923, Turkey was declared a republic and Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk, was elected its first president.
The last representative of the Turkish Sultanic dynasty of the Ottomans
Ertogrul Osman - grandson of Sultan Abdul Hamid II
“The last representative of the Ottoman dynasty, Ertogrul Osman, has died.
Osman spent most of his life in New York. Ertogrul Osman, who would have become sultan of the Ottoman Empire if Turkey had not become a republic in the 1920s, has died in Istanbul at the age of 97.
He was the last surviving grandson of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and his official title, if he became ruler, would be His Imperial Highness Prince Shahzade Ertogrul Osman Efendi.
He was born in Istanbul in 1912, but lived modestly in New York most of his life.
12-year-old Ertogrul Osman was studying in Vienna when he learned that his family had been expelled from the country by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Turkish Republic on the ruins of the old empire.
Osman eventually settled in New York, where he lived for over 60 years in an apartment above a restaurant.
Osman would have become Sultan if Ataturk had not founded the Turkish Republic. Osman always maintained that he had no political ambitions. He returned to Turkey in the early 1990s at the invitation of the Turkish government.
During a visit to his homeland, he went to the Dolmobahce Palace on the Bosphorus, which was the main residence of the Turkish sultans and in which he played as a child.
According to BBC columnist Roger Hardy, Ertogrul Osman was very modest and, in order not to attract attention to himself, he joined a group of tourists to get to the palace.
Ertogrul Osman’s wife is a relative of the last king of Afghanistan.”
Tughra as a personal sign of the ruler
Tughra (togra) is a personal sign of a ruler (Sultan, Caliph, Khan), containing his name and title. Since the time of Ulubey Orhan I, who applied to documents the impression of a palm immersed in ink, it became a custom to surround the Sultan’s signature with an image of his title and the title of his father, merging all the words in a special calligraphic style - the result is a vague resemblance to a palm. The tughra is designed in the form of an ornamentally decorated Arabic script (the text may not be in Arabic, but also in Persian, Turkic, etc.).
Tughra is placed on all government documents, sometimes on coins and mosque gates.
Forgery of tughra in the Ottoman Empire was punishable by death.
In the chambers of the ruler: pretentious, but tasteful
Traveler Théophile Gautier wrote about the chambers of the ruler of the Ottoman Empire: “The Sultan’s chambers are decorated in the style of Louis XIV, slightly modified in an oriental manner: here one can feel the desire to recreate the splendor of Versailles. Doors, window frames, and frames are made of mahogany, cedar or solid rosewood with elaborate carvings and expensive iron fittings strewn with gold chips. The most wonderful panorama opens from the windows - not a single monarch in the world has an equal to it in front of his palace.”
Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent
So not only were European monarchs keen on the style of their neighbors (say, the oriental style, when they set up boudoirs as pseudo-Turkish alcoves or held oriental balls), but also the Ottoman sultans admired the style of their European neighbors.
"Lions of Islam" - Janissaries
Janissaries (Turkish yeniçeri (yenicheri) - new warrior) - regular infantry of the Ottoman Empire in 1365-1826. The Janissaries, together with the sipahis and akinci (cavalry), formed the basis of the army in the Ottoman Empire. They were part of the kapikuly regiments (the Sultan’s personal guard, consisting of slaves and prisoners). Janissary troops also performed police and punitive functions in the state.
The Janissary infantry was created by Sultan Murad I in 1365 from Christian youths 12–16 years old. Mainly Armenians, Albanians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Georgians, Serbs, who were subsequently brought up in Islamic traditions, were enlisted in the army. Children recruited in Rumelia were sent to be raised by Turkish families in Anatolia and vice versa.
Recruitment of children into the Janissaries ( devshirme- blood tax) was one of the duties of the Christian population of the empire, since it allowed the authorities to create a counterweight to the feudal Turkic army (sipahs).
The Janissaries were considered slaves of the Sultan, lived in monasteries-barracks, they were initially forbidden to marry (until 1566) and engage in housekeeping. The property of a deceased or deceased janissary became the property of the regiment. In addition to the art of war, the Janissaries studied calligraphy, law, theology, literature and languages. Wounded or old Janissaries received a pension. Many of them went on to civilian careers.
In 1683, the Janissaries also began to be recruited from Muslims.
It is known that Poland copied the Turkish army system. In the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, according to the Turkish model, their own Janissary units were formed from volunteers. King Augustus II created his personal Janissary Guard.
The armament and uniform of the Christian Janissaries completely copied Turkish models, including the military drums were of the Turkish type, but differed in color.
The Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire had a number of privileges, from the 16th century. received the right to marry, engage in trade and crafts in their free time from service. The Janissaries received salaries from the sultans, gifts, and their commanders were promoted to the highest military and administrative positions of the empire. Janissary garrisons were located not only in Istanbul, but also in all major cities of the Turkish Empire. From the 16th century their service becomes hereditary, and they turn into a closed military caste. As the Sultan's guard, the Janissaries became a political force and often intervened in political intrigues, overthrowing unnecessary ones and placing the sultans they needed on the throne.
The Janissaries lived in special quarters, often rebelled, started riots and fires, overthrew and even killed sultans. Their influence acquired such dangerous proportions that in 1826 Sultan Mahmud II defeated and completely destroyed the Janissaries.
Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire
The Janissaries were known as courageous warriors who rushed at the enemy without sparing their lives. It was their attack that often decided the fate of the battle. It’s not for nothing that they were figuratively called “lions of Islam.”
Did the Cossacks use profanity in their letter to the Turkish Sultan?
Letter from the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan - an insulting response from the Zaporozhye Cossacks, written to the Ottoman Sultan (probably Mehmed IV) in response to his ultimatum: stop attacking the Sublime Porte and surrender. There is a legend that before sending troops to the Zaporozhye Sich, the Sultan sent the Cossacks a demand to submit to him as the ruler of the whole world and the viceroy of God on earth. The Cossacks allegedly responded to this letter with their own letter, without mincing words, denying any valor of the Sultan and cruelly mocking the arrogance of the “invincible knight.”
According to legend, the letter was written in the 17th century, when the tradition of such letters was developed among the Zaporozhye Cossacks and in Ukraine. The original letter has not survived, but several versions of the text of this letter are known, some of which are replete with swear words.
Historical sources provide the following text from a letter from the Turkish Sultan to the Cossacks.
"Mehmed IV's proposal:
I, Sultan and ruler of the Sublime Porte, son of Ibrahim I, brother of the Sun and Moon, grandson and vicegerent of God on earth, ruler of the kingdoms of Macedon, Babylon, Jerusalem, Great and Lesser Egypt, king over kings, ruler over rulers, incomparable knight, no one conquerable warrior, owner of the tree of life, persistent guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ, guardian of God himself, hope and comforter of Muslims, intimidator and great defender of Christians, I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily and without any resistance and not to make me worry with your attacks.
Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV."
The most famous version of the Cossacks’ answer to Mohammed IV, translated into Russian, is as follows:
“Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
You, Sultan, are the Turkish devil, and the damned devil’s brother and comrade, Lucifer’s own secretary. What kind of damn knight are you when you can’t kill a hedgehog with your bare ass. The devil sucks, and your army devours. You, you son of a bitch, will not have the sons of Christians under you, we are not afraid of your army, we will fight you with land and water, destroy your mother.
You are a Babylonian cook, a Macedonian charioteer, a Jerusalem brewer, an Alexandrian goatman, a swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, an Armenian thief, a Tatar sagaidak, a Kamenets executioner, a fool of all the world and the world, the grandson of the asp himself and our f... hook. You are a pig's muzzle, a mare's ass, a butcher's dog, an unbaptized forehead, motherfucker...
This is how the Cossacks answered you, you little bastard. You won’t even herd pigs for Christians. We end with this, since we don’t know the date and don’t have a calendar, the month is in the sky, the year is in the book, and our day is the same as yours, for that, kiss us on the ass!
Signed: Koshevoy Ataman Ivan Sirko with the entire Zaporozhye camp.”
This letter, replete with profanity, is cited by the popular encyclopedia Wikipedia.
The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. Artist Ilya Repin
The atmosphere and mood among the Cossacks composing the text of the answer is described in the famous painting by Ilya Repin “Cossacks” (more often called: “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan”).
It is interesting that in Krasnodar, at the intersection of Gorky and Krasnaya streets, a monument “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan” (sculptor Valery Pchelin) was erected in 2008.
Roksolana is the Queen of the East. All the secrets and mysteries of the biography
Information about the origins of Roksolana, or Khyur-rem, as her beloved Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent called her, is contradictory. Because there are no documentary sources and written evidence telling about the life of Hurrem before her appearance in the harem.
We know about the origin of this great woman from legends, literary works and reports of diplomats at the court of Sultan Suleiman. Moreover, almost all literary sources mention its Slavic (Rusyn) origin.
“Roksolana, aka Khyurrem (according to historical and literary tradition, birth name - Anastasia or Alexandra Gavrilovna Lisovskaya; the exact year of birth is unknown, died on April 18, 1558) - concubine and then wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, mother of Sultan Selim II" , says Wikipedia.
The first details about the early years of Roksolana-Hurrem’s life before entering the harem appear in literature in the 19th century, while this amazing woman lived in the 16th century.
Captive. Artist Jan Baptist Huysmans
Therefore, you can believe such “historical” sources that arose centuries later only by virtue of your imagination.
Kidnapping by Tatars
According to some authors, the prototype of Roxolana was the Ukrainian girl Nastya Lisovskaya, who was born in 1505 into the family of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky in Rohatyn, a small town in Western Ukraine. In the XVI century. this town was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which at that time was suffering from the devastating raids of the Crimean Tatars. In the summer of 1520, on the night of the attack on the settlement, the young daughter of a priest caught the eye of the Tatar invaders. Moreover, in some authors, say, N. Lazorsky, the girl is kidnapped on her wedding day. Whereas for others, she had not yet reached the age of the bride, but was a teenager. The series “Magnificent Century” also shows Roksolana’s fiancé, the artist Luka.
After the abduction, the girl ended up in the Istanbul slave market, where she was sold and then donated to the harem of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman. Suleiman was then crown prince and held a government post in Manisa. Historians do not rule out that the girl was given to 25-year-old Suleiman as a gift on the occasion of his accession to the throne (after the death of his father Selim I on September 22, 1520). Once in the harem, Roksolana received the name Khyurrem, which translated from Persian means “cheerful, laughing, giving joy.”
How the name came about: Roksolana
According to Polish literary tradition, the heroine's real name was Alexandra, she was the daughter of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky from Rohatyn (Ivano-Frankivsk region). In Ukrainian literature of the 19th century she is called Anastasia of Rohatyn. This version is colorfully presented in Pavlo Zagrebelny’s novel “Roksolana”. Whereas, according to the version of another writer - Mikhail Orlovsky, set out in the historical story “Roksolana or Anastasia Lisovskaya”, the girl was from Chemerovets (Khmelnitsky region). In those ancient times, when the future Hurrem Sultan could have been born there, both cities were located on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland.
In Europe, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska became known as Roksolana. Moreover, this name was literally invented by Ogier Ghiselin de Busbeck, the Hamburg ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and the author of the Latin-language “Turkish Notes”. In his literary work, based on the fact that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska came from the territory of the Roxolans or Alans tribe, he called her Roxolana.
Wedding of Sultan Suleiman and Hurrem
From the stories of the author of the “Turkish Letters”, the Austrian Ambassador Busbeck, we learned many details from the life of Roksolana. We can say that thanks to him we learned about her very existence, for the woman’s name could easily have been lost over the centuries.
In one of the letters, Busbeck reports the following: “The Sultan loved Hurrem so much that, in violation of all palace and dynastic rules, he entered into a marriage according to Turkish tradition and prepared a dowry.”
One of the portraits of Roksolana-Hurrem
This significant event in all respects took place around 1530. The Englishman George Young described it as a miracle: “This week an event occurred here that is unknown in the entire history of the local sultans. The Great Lord Suleiman took a slave from Russia named Roksolana as empress, which was celebrated with a great celebration. The wedding ceremony took place in the palace, which was dedicated to feasts on an unprecedented scale. The streets of the city are flooded with light at night and people are having fun everywhere. The houses are hung with garlands of flowers, swings are installed everywhere, and people swing on them for hours. At the old hippodrome, large stands were built with seats and a gilded grille for the Empress and her courtiers. Roksolana with her close ladies watched from there the tournament in which Christian and Muslim knights participated; musicians performed in front of the podium, wild animals were seen off, including strange giraffes with such long necks that they reached to the sky... There are a lot of different rumors about this wedding, but no one can explain what all this could mean.”
It should be pointed out that some sources say that this wedding took place only after the death of Valide Sultan, the mother of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Valide Sultan Hafsa Khatun died in 1534.
In 1555, Hans Dernshvam visited Istanbul; in his travel notes he wrote the following: “Suleiman fell in love with this girl with Russian roots, from an unknown family, more than other concubines. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was able to receive a document of freedom and become his legal wife in the palace. Apart from Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, there is no padishah in history who listened so much to the opinion of his wife. Whatever she wished, he immediately fulfilled.”
Roksolana-Hurrem was the only woman in the Sultan's harem with an official title - Sultana Haseki, and Sultan Suleiman shared his power with her. She made the Sultan forget about the harem forever. All of Europe wanted to know the details about the woman who, at one of the receptions in the palace in a dress of gold brocade, rose with the Sultan to the throne with her face open!
Children of Hurrem, born in love
Hurrem gave birth to 6 children to the Sultan.
Sons:
Mehmed (1521–1543)
Abdullah (1523–1526)
Daughter:
Of all the sons of Suleiman I, only Selim survived the Magnificent Father Sultan. The rest died earlier during the struggle for the throne (except Mehmed, who died in 1543 from smallpox).
Hurrem and Suleiman wrote letters to each other full of passionate declarations of love
Selim became heir to the throne. After the death of his mother in 1558, another son of Suleiman and Roksolana, Bayazid, rebelled (1559). He was defeated by his father’s troops in the battle of Konya in May 1559 and tried to take refuge in Safavid Iran, but Shah Tahmasp I handed him over to his father for 400 thousand gold, and Bayezid was executed (1561). Bayezid's five sons were also killed (the youngest of them was only three years old).
Letter from Hurrem to his master
Hurrem's letter to Sultan Suleiman was written when he was on a campaign against Hungary. But there were many such touching letters between them.
“Soul of my soul, my lord! Hail to him who raises the morning breeze; prayer to the one who gives sweetness to the lips of lovers; Praise be to him who fills the voice of his beloved with fervor; respect to the one who burns, like words of passion; boundless devotion to the one who is shone with the most pure light, like the faces and heads of the ascended; to one who is a hyacinth in the form of a tulip, perfumed with the scent of fidelity; glory to the one who holds the banner of victory in front of the army; to the one whose cry is: “Allah! Allah!" - heard in heaven; to his majesty my padishah. May God help him! – we convey the wonder of the Highest Lord and the conversations of Eternity. Enlightened conscience, which adorns my consciousness and remains the treasure of the light of my happiness and my saddened eyes; to the one who knows my deepest secrets; the peace of my aching heart and the pacification of my wounded chest; to him who is the sultan on the throne of my heart and in the light of the eyes of my happiness - the eternal slave, devoted, with a hundred thousand burns on her soul, worships him. If you, my lord, my highest tree of paradise, at least for a moment deign to think or ask about this orphan of yours, know that everyone except her is under the tent of mercy of the All-Merciful. For on that day, when the unfaithful sky, with all-encompassing pain, inflicted violence on me and, despite these poor tears, plunged numerous swords of separation into my soul, on that day of judgment, when the eternal fragrance of the flowers of paradise was taken away from me, my world turned into nothingness , my health is in ill health, and my life is in ruin. From my continuous sighs, sobs and painful screams, which did not subside day or night, human souls were filled with fire. Maybe the creator will have mercy and, responding to my melancholy, will return you to me again, the treasure of my life, in order to save me from the current alienation and oblivion. May this come true, O my lord! Day has turned into night for me, oh melancholy moon! My lord, the light of my eyes, there is no night that would not be incinerated by my hot sighs, there is no evening when my loud sobs and my longing for your sunny face would not reach the heavens. Day has turned into night for me, oh melancholy moon!”
Fashionista Roksolana on artists' canvases
Roksolana, aka Hurrem Sultan, was a pioneer in many areas of palace life. For example, this woman became the trendsetter of the new palace fashion, forcing tailors to sew loose-fitting clothes and unusual capes for herself and her loved ones. She also adored all kinds of exquisite jewelry, some of which were made by Sultan Suleiman himself, while the other part of the jewelry were purchases or gifts from ambassadors.
We can judge Hurrem’s outfits and preferences from the paintings of famous artists who tried to both restore her portrait and recreate the outfits of that era. For example, in a painting by Jacopo Tintoretto (1518 or 1519–1594), a painter of the Venetian school of the late Renaissance, Hurrem is depicted in a long-sleeved dress with a turn-down collar and a cape.
Portrait of Hürrem, kept in the Topkapi Palace Museum
The life and rise of Roxolana so excited the creative contemporaries that even the great painter Titian (1490–1576), whose student, by the way, was Tintoretto, painted a portrait of the famous sultana. A painting by Titian, painted in the 1550s, is called La Sultana Rossa, that is, the Russian sultana. Now this Titian masterpiece is kept in the Ringling Brothers Museum of Art and Circus Arts in Sarasota (USA, Florida); The museum contains unique works of painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages in Western Europe.
Another artist who lived at that time and was related to Turkey was the major German artist from Flemburg, Melchior Loris. He arrived in Istanbul as part of Busbeck's Austrian embassy to Sultan Suleiman Kanuni, and stayed in the capital of the Ottoman Empire for four and a half years. The artist made many portraits and everyday sketches, but, in all likelihood, his portrait of Roksolana could not have been made from life. Melchior Loris depicted the Slavic heroine as a little plump, with a rose in her hand, with a cape on her head decorated with precious stones and with her hair styled in a braid.
Not only paintings, but also books colorfully described the unprecedented outfits of the Ottoman queen. Vivid descriptions of the wardrobe of the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent can be found in the famous book by P. Zagrebelny “Roksolana”.
It is known that Suleiman composed a short poem that is directly related to his beloved’s wardrobe. In the mind of a lover, his beloved’s dress looks like this:
I repeated many times:
Sew my beloved dress.
Make a top out of the sun, put the moon as a lining,
Pinch the fluff from the white clouds, twist the threads
from the blue sea,
Sew buttons out of stars, and make buttonholes out of me!
Enlightened ruler
Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska managed to show her intelligence not only in love affairs, but also in communicating with people of equal status. She patronized artists and corresponded with the rulers of Poland, Venice, and Persia. It is known that she corresponded with the queens and the sister of the Persian Shah. And for the Persian prince Elkas Mirza, who was hiding in the Ottoman Empire from his enemies, she sewed a silk shirt and vest with her own hands, thereby demonstrating generous maternal love, which was supposed to evoke both the gratitude and trust of the prince.
Hurrem Haseki Sultan even received foreign envoys and corresponded with influential nobles of that time.
Historical information has been preserved that a number of Hurrem’s contemporaries, in particular Sehname-i Al-i Osman, Sehname-i Humayun and Taliki-zade el-Fenari, presented a very flattering portrait of Suleiman’s wife, as a woman revered “for her numerous charitable donations, for her patronage of students and respect for learned men, experts in religion, as well as for her acquisition of rare and beautiful things.”
Contemporaries believed that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska bewitched Suleiman
She implemented large-scale charitable projects. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska received the right to build religious and charitable buildings in Istanbul and other major cities of the Ottoman Empire. She created a charitable foundation in her name (Turkish: Külliye Hasseki Hurrem). With donations from this fund, the Aksaray district or women's bazaar, later also named after Haseki (Turkish: Avret Pazari), was built in Istanbul, the buildings of which included a mosque, a madrasah, an imaret, a primary school, hospitals and a fountain. It was the first complex built in Istanbul by the architect Sinan in his new position as chief architect of the ruling house, and also the third largest building in the capital, after the Mehmet II (Turkish: Fatih Camii) and Süleymaniye (Turkish: Süleymanie) complexes.
P The last sultana of Ottoman origin was the mother of Suleiman I the Magnificent, her name was Aishe Sultan Hafsa (December 5, 1479 - March 19, 1534), according to sources, she was from Crimea and was the daughter of Khan Mengli-Girey. However, this information is controversial and has not yet been fully verified.
After Aishe, the era of the “female sultanate” (1550-1656) began, when women influenced government affairs. Naturally, they cannot be compared with European rulers (Catherine II, or Elizabeth I of England) due to the fact that these women had disproportionately less power, personal freedom and were further from absolutism. It is believed that this era began with Anastasia (Alexandra) Lisovskaya, or Roksolana known to us. She was the wife of Suleiman I the Magnificent and the mother of Selim II, and became the first sultana taken from the harem.
After Roksolana, the main women of the country became two relatives, two beautiful Venetian women from the Baffo family, Cecilia and Sofia. Both one and the other came to the top through the harem. Cecilia Baffo became Roksolana's daughter-in-law.
So, Cecilia Vernier-Baffo, or Nurbanu Sultan, was born on the island of Paros around 1525. Her father was a noble Venetian, the governor of the island of Paros, Nicolo Venier, and her mother was Violanta Baffo. The girl's parents were not married, so the girl was named Cecilia Baffo, giving her mother's surname.
According to another, less popular version, based on Ottoman sources, Nurbanu's real name was Rachel, and she was the daughter of Violanta Baffo and an unknown Spanish Jew.
Little is known about Cecilia's history.
It is known that in 1537, the pirate and admiral of the Turkish flotilla Khair ad-din Barbarossa captured Paros and 12-year-old Cecilia was enslaved. She was sold to the Sultan's harem, where Hurrem Sultan was noticed for her intelligence . Hurrem gave her the name Nurbanu, which means "Queen who exudes divine light" and sent her to serve her son, Prince Selim.
According to the chronicles, having reached adulthood in 1543, Selim was sent to Konya to take up the post due to him as heir, Cecilia Nurbanu accompanied him. At this time, the young prince was inflamed with love for his beautiful accompanying odalisque.
Soon Nurbanu had a daughter, Shah Sultan, and later, in 1546, a son, Murad, who was at that time the only son of Selim. Later, Nurbanu Sultan gave birth to four more daughters for Selima. And after Selim’s accession to the throne, Nurbanu becomes Haseki.
In the Ottoman Empire itself, Selim received the nickname “Drunkard” because of his passion for wine, but he was not a drunkard in the literal sense of the word. And yet, state affairs were handled by Mehmed Sokollu (Grand Vizier of Bosnian origin Boyko Sokolović), who came under the influence of Nurbanu.
As a ruler, Nurbanu corresponded with many ruling dynasties, pursued a pro-Venetian policy, for which the Genoese hated her and, judging by rumors, the Genoese ambassador poisoned her.
In honor of Nurban, the Attik Valide Mosque was built near the capital, where she was buried in 1583, bitterly mourned by her son Murad III, who often relied on his mother in his politics.
Safiye Sultan (translated from Turkish as "Pure"), born Sofia Baffo, was of Venetian origin, and was a relative of her mother-in-law, Nurban Sultan. She was born around 1550, the daughter of the ruler of the Greek island of Corfu and a relative of the Venetian senator and poet Giorgio Baffo.
Sofia, like Cecilia, was captured by corsairs and sold into a harem, where she then attracted the attention of Crown Prince Murad, for whom she became the only favorite for a long time. It was rumored that the reason for such constancy were problems in the prince’s intimate life, which only Safiye knew how to somehow overcome. These rumors are very similar to the truth, since before Murad became Sultan (in 1574, at the age of 28, after the death of his father Sultan Selim II), he only had children with Safiye.
Having become the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Murad III, obviously, recovered after some time from his intimate illness, since he moved from forced monogamy to sexual excesses, and practically devoted his future life exclusively to the pleasures of the flesh, to the detriment of state affairs. So 20 sons and 27 daughters (however, we should not forget that in the 15th-16th centuries infant mortality was very high and out of 10 newborn babies, 7 died in childhood, 2 in adolescence and young adulthood, and only one had any chance live to at least 40 years old), which Sultan Murad III left after his death - a completely natural result of his lifestyle.
in the 15th-16th centuries, infant mortality was very high and out of 10 newborn babies, 7 died in childhood, 2 in adolescence and young adulthood, and only one had any chance of surviving at least 40 years
Despite the fact that Murad never married his beloved Safiya, this did not stop her from becoming one of the most influential women of that time.
The first nine years of his reign, Murad completely shared with his mother Nurbana, obeyed her in everything. And it was Nurbanu who played an important role in his attitude towards Safiya. Despite family ties, both in state affairs and in the affairs of the harem, Venetian women constantly fought with each other for leadership. Nevertheless, as they say, youth won.
In 1583, after the death of Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan began to strengthen the position of her son Mehmed as the heir of Murad III. Mehmed was already 15 years old and he was very popular among the Janissaries, which greatly frightened his father. Murad III even prepared conspiracies, but Safiyya always managed to warn her son. This struggle continued for 12 years, until Murad’s death.
Safiye Sultan received almost unlimited power at the age of 45, simultaneously with the title of Valide Sultan, after the death of Sultan Murad III in 1595. Her son, the bloodthirsty Mehmed III, immediately after his accession to the throne, the Ottomans ordered the murder of not only his 20 younger brothers, but also all of his father’s pregnant concubines. It was he who introduced in the Sublime Porte the disastrous custom of not giving the princes the opportunity to take part in governing the state during the life of their father, but of keeping them locked up in the seraglio, in the Cafes (cage) pavilion.
The Female Sultanate is the historical definition of the historical period of the Ottoman Empire from 1541 to 1687 (according to another dating, from 1550 to 1656). For almost 150 (or just over 100 years), during which women had a great, and in the end even decisive, influence on the public policy of the Sublime Porte. Mothers, wives and concubines of the Turkish padishahs.
The term “female sultanate” was introduced into the history of the Ottoman Empire by the Turkish historian Ahmet Refik Altinay in 1916 in his book of the same name, in which he considered the participation of the weaker sex in the governance of Turkey as the reason for the decline of the Ottoman state. Although most of his colleagues, both then and later, did not agree with this assessment, explaining the increased influence of women on the politics of the Islamic empire of the 16th-17th centuries. a consequence, not a cause, of its weakening.
It should be noted that each sultana included in the “Women’s Sultanate” was able to truly take power into her own hands only after the death of her ruler, as a valid sultan (something like a “queen mother” in European monarchies) under her sons who became sultans (with one exception - Hurrem Sultan never became valid, since she died before her husband, Sultan Suleiman). Moreover, in most cases this measure was forced - due to the young age of the ruling Sultan or due to his mental retardation. And one more thing - all these women, with a single exception, were born and formed as individuals in the conditions of European Christian civilization (two Ukrainians, two Venetians, a Greek), which provided the weaker sex, even in those harsh patriarchal times, much more freedom and independence than the Islamic tradition .
KHURREM-SULTAN (ROKSOLANA) Alexandra (Anastasia) Gavrilovna Lisovskaya (1505/1506-1558) , concubine from 1520, from 1534 - the legal wife of Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent, Ukrainian, daughter of an Orthodox priest from Western Ukraine. I have never been a valid sultan;
AFIFE NURBANU-SULTAN – Cecilia (Olivia) Venier-Baffo (c.1525-1583), Came into the harem of the son of Hurrem Sultan, shehzade (heir to the throne) Selim, around 1537. Legal wife of Sultan Selim II from 1570-1571. By origin, she is a Venetian, an illegitimate descendant of two noble families (her parents were not married). Valide Sultan since 1574;
MELIKIE SAFIYE-SULTAN – Sophia Baffo (c.1550-1619). Venetian, relative of her mother-in-law, Nurbanu. She entered the harem of Khyurrem's grandson, Shehzade Murad, in 1563 - Roksolana's daughter, Mihrimah Sultan, gave her to her nephew. Valide Sultan since 1595;
HALIME-SULTAN – name given at birth is unknown (c.1571-after 1623). Originally from modern Abkhazia, most likely of Circassian origin. The circumstances under which she ended up in the harem of the future Sultan Mehmed III are unknown. It is only known that this happened even before his accession to the throne, when he was the sanjak bey of Manisa. Twice (for a total of two and a half years) she was Valide Sultan under her mentally disabled son Mustafa I. Due to Mustafa’s incapacity, Halime Sultan, for the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, became not only Valide Sultan, but also the regent of the Islamic Empire.
MAHPAKER KOSEM-SULTAN – (c.1590-1651)- the most influential woman in the entire history of the Ottoman Empire, three times valid Sultan. Presumably a Greek woman named Anastasia, the daughter of an Orthodox priest. Concubine of Sultan Ahmed I from 1603. Valide Sultan (and regent of the state) under his son Murad IV from 1623 to 1631; under the second son Ibrahim I from 1640 to 1648; under his grandson Mehmed IV from 1648 until his death in 1651;
TURKHAN HATIJE-SULTAN (c.1628-1683) - Ukrainian woman named Nadezhda, originally from the Ukrainian Slobozhanshchina, presumably from the city of Trostyanets in the modern Sumy region of Ukraine. Concubine of Sultan Ibrahim I from 1641. Valide Sultan and regent of the state since 1651 under his young son Mehmed IV. She voluntarily renounced the title of regent on September 15, 1565 in favor of the new grand vizier she appointed, Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. This date is considered the end of the “female sultanate,” although Turhan herself lived for another 18 years, and her son, the Sultan, on whose behalf she ruled, died 28 years later, having previously lost power in 1687, just four years after his death mother. Some Turkish historians consider 1687 to be the end of the “female sultanate”, thus extending its term by 31 years. Because all these powerful sultanas, no matter how smart, enterprising and wise they were, meant nothing without their often not just stupid, but mentally retarded sons, in whose name they ruled. Independent rule by a woman in the Ottoman Empire was absolutely impossible for the Islamic world.
One more thing. In those harsh times of the late Middle Ages, with enormous infant mortality (out of 10 newborns, 5 died in the first days and months of life) and the frequent death of women in labor, a girl was considered ready for marriage (and, accordingly, for marital relations) immediately after her first menstruation. And in southern countries (unlike northern ones) this is quite common and now occurs in girls aged 10-11, even at 9 years old. It is clear that no one knew or heard anything about any pedophilia at that time - life was too short and harsh, a woman had to have time to give birth to as many children as possible, so that, in turn, as many of them as possible would survive. In addition, in those days it was believed that the younger the woman in labor, the greater her chances of surviving the birth of the child. So all the concubines of the Turkish sultans first fell into their bed at the age of 11-12, maximum at 13-14 years. Which is confirmed by the birth dates of their children. For example, the father of Sultan Suleiman I, Selim I, was given birth to by his grandmother Gulbahar Khatun (Greek Maria) when she was less than 12 years old. At the same age, the concubine of the conqueror of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih, Sitti Mukrime Khatun, gave birth to her son Bayezid II (the grandfather of Sultan Suleiman).
The founder of the “Women’s Sultanate” in the Ottoman Empire is considered to be Roksolana (Hurrem Sultan), a Ukrainian slave-concubine, and later the beloved legal wife of Sultan Suleiman I.
Which is not entirely correct for several reasons.
Hurrem's success was largely due and prepared by the activities of her mother-in-law, the mother of Sultan Suleiman, Aisha Hafsa-Sultan - an outstanding woman of her time, whom her son loved and respected very much until his death. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, not only as a mother, but, first of all, as a person.
AIŞE HAFSA-SULTAN (December 5, 1479 – March 19, 1534)
Crimean khanbika (princess), daughter of the Crimean khan Mengli I Giray (1445-1515) from the dynasty of rulers of the Crimea Geraev (Gireev). Her father was forced to accept the Ottoman protectorate in 1578, a year before Hafsa was born.
Hafsa-khatun ended up in the harem of shehzade Selim sometime in the spring and summer of 1493, at about 13 years old. Selim was then the sanjak bey (governor of the Ottoman province) of Trambzon (now the administrative center in northeastern Turkey, on the Black Sea coast, near the border with Georgia) - the former capital of the Trebizond Empire, recently captured (in 1461) by the Ottomans - heiress of Byzantium, so the Crimean hanbika, in order to become a concubine of one of the heirs of the ruler of the Ottoman Empire, only had to cross the Black Sea on her father’s ship.
The future Sultan Suleiman was born in Trambzon the following year, on November 6, 1494, and at the same time his twin sister, Hafiza (Hafsa) Hanim Sultan (1494-1538), was born. The birth of twins and twins is usually a hereditary family trait. In this regard, it is worth remembering that more than thirty years later, in 1530, Suleiman’s younger sister and at the same time the daughter of his mother Aishe Hafsa, Hatice Sultan, also gave birth to twins - a boy Osman and a girl Khurijikhan.
The two daughters of Roksolana's son, Shehzade Selim, from his concubine Nurbanu - Esmekhan Sultan and Gevkerkhan Sultan, were twins or twins - there is even an assumption that their elder sister, Shah Sultan, a year older than them, was actually born on the same day day with the girls - that is, they were triplets. After the death of Sultan Osman II, the great-great-great-grandson of Suleiman I, twins were born to him, Shehzade Mustafa and Zeynep Sultan. And Sultan Osman’s paternal brother, Ahmed I, also had a pair of twins from Kösem Sultan - Sehzade Kasim and Atike Sultan.
The twin sister of Sultan Suleiman lived a quiet and inconspicuous life. At the age of 20, she was married to Damad Mustafa Pasha, who later, from 1522 to 1523, was governor of Egypt. Hafiza Sultan never had children, and therefore, having become a widow at the age of 29, she returned to Istanbul to her mother, Aisha Hafse Valide Sultan, in the Topkapi Palace. She never married again, and here she ended her days - on July 10, 1538, at the age of less than 44 years.
Suleiman spent the first years of his life in his father’s sanjak, in Trambzon, and after the circumcision ceremony at the age of 7, his grandfather, Sultan Bayezid II, took his grandson to his court in Constantinople. There shehzade studied military affairs, jurisprudence, philosophy, history and fencing. In addition, Suleiman learned foreign languages - Serbian, Arabic and Persian, which he later mastered perfectly. It was then that he mastered the craft of a jeweler, which became his lifelong passion.
Grandfather Sultan treated Roksolana’s future husband very well (much better than his father), which is proven by the following circumstance.
According to Ottoman tradition, all crown princes (shehzade) who reached a certain age (usually 14 years old, but exceptions to the rules in both directions) were appointed governors (sanjak beys) of provinces (sanjaks) in Anatolia (the Asian part of modern Turkey); this was part of their preparation for further rule. In the Ottoman Empire there were no clear rules for succession to the throne; all men - bearers of the sacred blood of the Ottomans, had the right to power. According to custom, the throne was given to the shehzade who would be the first to reach Istanbul immediately after the death of the padishah of the Sublime Porte. Therefore, by the distance from the capital of one or another sanjak of each son or grandson of the Turkish sultan, one could judge his preferences - it is clear that the one whom the father saw as his heir became the sanjak bey of the province closest to the capital. And in this regard, with Suleiman’s father, Selim, everything was not just bad, but hopeless - his sanjak Trambzon, in comparison with Amasya of his father’s favorite, older brother, Shehzade Akhmet, and Antalya of his second brother-competitor, Shehzade Korkut, was in such deaf fucking, of which he did not have a single chance to get to Istanbul first (the distance from Trambzon to Istanbul in a straight line is 902 km. In those days, even on the best horses and in good weather, it took ten days to get there one way) . For comparison: the distance from Amasya Akhmet to Istanbul is 482 km, and exactly the same distance, only in the southern direction from Istanbul, to Antalya Korkut.
And then, like a bolt from the blue, his only son Suleiman, who reached the age of 14 (in 1508), receives from his grandfather his first assignment not just anywhere, but to the small sanjak of Bolu, located almost next to Istanbul (223 km along straight). However, the favorite of the Sultan's race, the eldest son of Bayezid II, Suleiman's uncle, Akhmet (who by that time had four grown-up sons of his own), quickly corrected this annoying circumstance for him, sending his nephew as governor “to hell with his horns” - to the Crimean Kaffa ( Feodosia), to the other side of the Black Sea, to the homeland of his mother, Aisha Hafsa-Sultan. Thus making a fatal mistake.
Some time after Suleiman was sent as a sanjakbey to the Crimea, his father Selim asked his father for a sanjak in Rumelia (the European part of the empire), closer to Istanbul. Although at first he was denied these lands, since they were usually not provided to the shehzade, later, clearly in mockery (apparently, this could not have happened without his older brother Akhmet), Selim received control of the province of Semendire (in modern Serbia) - a remote hole in the north -western outskirts of the empire. Here Selim first showed clear disobedience, refusing to go to his new sanjak, and then rebelled against his father, moving a hastily assembled army towards Istanbul. Sultan Bayezid, at the head of a large army, easily defeated his son in August 1511. Defeated, Selim fled to Crimea - to his son Suleiman and father-in-law, Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray, who provided his son-in-law with all possible help and support. Sultan Bayezid had no opportunity to somehow catch the fugitive in the Crimea, where he is under the protection of the selected army of the father of one of his sultanas. And Sanjak Bey Suleiman could imitate the search for a rebel in front of his grandfather the Sultan as much as he wanted.
Meanwhile, the eldest son of the Ottoman ruler, Ahmet, to whom his father entrusted the suppression of the Shahkul uprising in Anatolia, having received large military forces at his disposal while Bayezid II was dealing with Selim, declared himself the Sultan of Anatolia, and began to fight against one of his nephews (whose father was already dead). He captured the city of Konya and, although Sultan Bayezid demanded that he return to his sanjak, Ahmet insisted on governing this city. He even made an attempt to capture the capital, but was unsuccessful, since the Janissaries refused to help him, strongly supporting the Crimean fugitive Selim.
Ultimately, having lost the support of the Janissaries, and due to some complex religious motives, Bayezid II abdicated the throne on April 25, 1512 in favor of his father Suleiman.
Having become Sultan, Selim I first ordered the execution of all his male relatives entitled to the Ottoman throne. A month later, he ordered his father to be poisoned. Selim's hated older brother, Ahmet, continued to control parts of Anatolia in the first few months of his reign. Ultimately, Selim and Ahmet's forces met at the Battle of Yenisehir near Bursa on April 24, 1513, the anniversary of the abdication of their father, Sultan Bayezid. Akhmet's army was defeated, he himself was captured and was soon executed.
Selim's second rival brother, Shehzade Korkut, did not take any part in these feuds, being quite content with his position as Sanjak Bey of Manisa. He accepted Selim's authority without hesitation when he became Sultan. However, the incredulous Selim I decided to test his loyalty by sending him forged letters on behalf of some statesmen of the empire, in which Korkut was called upon to take part in the uprising against Selim. Having learned about his brother’s positive response, Selim ordered his execution, which was carried out.
All the time while Selim II was deciding, of course, the most important issues for him, not just succession to the throne, but basic survival, of course, he had no time for Suleiman. Shehzade’s mother, Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, a smart, courageous and independent woman, completely took charge of the upbringing of his son. The fact that the Crimean khans in their homeland always enjoyed much greater freedom than the Turkish sultanas at home led to the fact that many contemporaries considered Aishe Hafsa a violator of traditional Ottoman foundations. It was she, and not her daughter-in-law Roksolana, who was the first to break the unshakable rule of the main harem of Turkey “one concubine - one shehzade”. The eunuchs did not allow women who had already given birth to his son to visit the sultan for halvet (literally – “complete privacy of a man and a woman in a closed space without any interference”) (unless the ruler himself summoned one of them). This principle, it must be admitted, made the chances of all sehzades on the Ottoman throne almost equal after the death of their common father. And he did not give any one odalisque the opportunity to significantly strengthen her position in the harem (and this could be done only by giving birth to boys). So, it was Aishe Hafsa Sultan who gave birth to nine children to Selim I (Roksolana gave in to her here too, giving birth to “only” six), of which four sons and five daughters. In addition to five full-blooded (from common parents), Suleiman had five more half-sisters from different concubines of his father. Suleiman's younger brothers, Orkhan, Musa and Korkut, died in early childhood. Of all the sons of Sultan Selim, only the eldest son of the Crimean khanbiki survived to adulthood, which, of course, later made his path to the throne very easy.
The significance for Selim I of his concubine Aishe Hafsa-Sultan, the mother of his only shehzade, after being defeated by his father Sultan Bayezid II, he fled to her father in Crimea, cannot be overestimated. Hafsa Sultan became the connecting and unifying link between the three men closest to her - her son Suleiman, the Sanjak Bey of Crimea (to whom, of course, the Ottoman troops on the peninsula were subordinate), her father, the Crimean Khan Mengli I Girey, who was subordinate to a considerable local army (the raids of the Crimean Tatars on Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland kept all of Eastern Europe in fear), and her husband (for lack of another definition), the heir of the Ottoman Empire, Selim.
It is unlikely that Sultan Selim appreciated this - he was a very cruel and rude man even by the standards of his time, but this circumstance certainly made an indelible impression on young Suleiman, who at the age of 17 found himself in the very epicenter of the dynastic crisis of a huge state. And, obviously, this is what made him see a person in a woman who in those days was not even considered a person.
After the accession of Selim I to the throne in April 1512, he sent Suleiman as governor to the “hereditary” sanjak of Sarukhan with its capital in Manisa. The distance from Manisa to Istanbul in a straight line is 297 km. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Ottoman sultans sent those of their sons to it as sanjak beys, to whom they wanted to leave power over the Sublime Porte after their death. Aishe Hafsa Sultan went to Surukhan with her son, and in 1520, after the death of Sultan Selim I, she accompanied him to Istanbul, where he became Sultan Suleiman I. From 1520 until her death in 1534, she led the main harem of the empire. She became the first mother of the ruling Turkish padishah to bear the title Valide Sultan.
During the eight years during which her son ruled Sarukhan in Manisa, Aishe Hafsa Sultan did a lot for the prosperity of this region. At her own expense, she built mosques, schools and hospitals in Manisa. The building of the charity center she founded to help the mentally ill has survived to this day.
The day of the death of Sultan Suleiman's mother - March 19, 1534 - is still celebrated in Turkey as a day of remembrance for one of the most revered women in the country.
If at the very beginning of the Sultanate of Selim I in the Sublime Porte there were only two bearers of the sacred blood of the Ottomans in the male line - he himself and his only son Suleiman (he destroyed the rest), then Suleiman, after the death of his father, arrived in Istanbul from Manisa with three (each according to other data - five) by his sons from three concubines (in total he had seventeen of them in his harem at that time), the eldest of whom was 7-8 years old, including the then 5-year-old Mustafa. And in Istanbul, the throne of the greatest power of that time awaited him - the Islamic Ottoman Empire, which he further expanded and strengthened with military campaigns during his reign. And Roksolana.
Advertisements
Ottoman dispute over "Women's Sultanate"
What do you know about Hurrem Sultan?
Some historians on the Ottoman period hypothesize that it was Hurrem Sultan who laid the foundation for the period of Ottoman history called the “Female Sultanate.” They claim that this is one of the main reasons for the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Although the “Female Sultanate” is not the reason for the decline of the Empire. This is, in fact, its result.
I have already gone to the tomb of Hurrem Sultan before. You can guess where this tomb is located. Of course, next to the Suleymaniye Mosque, along with the tomb of Sultan Suleyman.
My attention was attracted by the interest that foreign tourists show in her tomb. Conversations between tourists on the way out indicate that this visit was not accidental, and they have knowledge about Hurrem Sultan herself. I wonder if this supply creates demand or if people’s interest in Hurrem Sultan becomes the reason for the appearance of information about her?
To answer this question, I went to Inter 
no, and entered the word “Roksolana” into the search engine. In response, I received a bunch of pages with Internet addresses. Tales about the life of Hurrem from the words of witnesses of that time expanded from the time of the ambassadors of Venice under Sultan Suleiman right up to the time of the Austrian ambassador Busbeck. Her “life struggle” was met with understanding and it was emphasized that she was trying to win her right to life. Although relying on the same sources, historians of the last century are racing to blame Hurrem.
The ambassadors of Venice described Hürrem Sultan as “not a beauty, but charming,” but historian Ahmet Refik Altynay brings her beauty to the fore and blasts her to smithereens:
“... (Hurrem Sultan) wanted to take possession of the Padishah with the help of her beauty and become the only Sultana both in the palace and in the state. To fulfill this dream, she did not disdain either deception, betrayal, or murder.”
And this is not enough for our historian. Sultan Suleiman also gets it: “Sultan Suleiman was just a tool in the hands of Hurrem, who did whatever she wanted. (...) After a string of murders, he was buried in the arms of Hurrem and the era of the Nurbanu Sultanate began..” (Ahmet Refik Altynay, “Women’s Sultanate”).
Historian Ismail Hani Danishmend also claims that Hurrem Sultan laid the foundation for the “Women’s Sultanate”, which became the main reason for the fall of the Ottoman Empire:
“It is believed that the death of Kanuni’s mother and Sultan Yavuz’s wife Hafsa Sultan (...) created favorable circumstances for the emergence of the “Women’s Sultanate” in the Ottoman palace. The famous “Hurrem Sultan”, whom Western literature and history speaks of as Roksolan, began to use her influence on Kanuni to achieve her own interests just at this very time in palace intrigues. This means that one of the main reasons for the stagnation (decline) of the Ottoman Empire manifested itself in its greatest days.” (Ismail Hani Danishmend, “Chronology of Ottoman History with Commentary, Volume 2”).
Danishmend believes that Hurrem has accumulated a lot of sins: “As a result, Hurrem Haseki, after Makbul Igrahim Pasha (this is Pargaly - approx. per.) sacrificed Kara Ahmed Pasha to her interests, that is, she put two viziers under the death penalty, and it is also necessary take into account that along with the strangled heir Mustafa, the heir Cihangir also died, unable to bear the death of his brother, so that it became the cause of the death of two more.”
If we remember that Shehzade Cihangir was Khyurrem’s own son, Roksolana is on the conscience, which marked the beginning of the period of the “Women’s Sultanate”, which gave rise to the decline of the Empire, in addition to three deaths, the death of her own son.
Danishmend, who considered Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska’s very existence a mistake, even complains about her death:
“In 1558, the death of Hurrem Sultan, who created the “Women’s Sultanate” in the palace and killed poor Mustafa so that her favorite, Baezid, would inherit the throne, although she did not leave room for maneuver for Selim’s comrades, still brought tragedy and became just as destructive for the state, like the life of this greedy lady.”
It seems as if if Hurrem had died earlier, Danishmend would have taken back his accusations. 
Fight with Makhidevran
Hurrem Sultan came to the palace as a concubine and became “Haseki” when, a year after Sultan Suleiman ascended the throne, she gave him the heir Mehmed. And she entered into a serious battle with Makhidevran, who 5 years earlier gave birth to an heir, Mustafa. In order to strengthen her position, she gave birth to Mihrimah Sultan (1522), Shehzade Abdullah (1523), Shehzade Selim (1524), Shehzade Bayazid (1525) and Shehzade Cihangir (1531).
Hurrem Sultan managed to convince Kanuni to go beyond tradition and marry her, and send Mahidevrat further away - to his son Mustafa in Manisa, where he was the governor. After the death of Hafsa Sultan in 1534, who was the guarantor of the preservation of the dynasty and maintained strict discipline in the harem, Hurrem became the only mistress. She tied the Sultan to her with excessive sensuality and emotionality. The people, who did not understand the relationship between the Ruler and the concubine-slave, believed that Hurrem had bewitched Suleiman.
Hurrem Sultan put her daughter Mihrimah's husband, Damat Rüstem Pasha, in the vizier's chair for a long time, and then she tried to make sure that one of her sons ascended the throne. That is why she is responsible for the fact that Sultan Suleiman executed the vizier Ibrahim Pasha, who supported Mustafa, Kara Ahmed Pasha and Şehzade Mustafa himself.
After the strangulation of Mustafa's heir, Hurrem Sultan died in 1558 at the age of over 50.
Fight for the throne
After the death of Hurrem Sultan, the heir Baezid, whom Hurrem would like to see as Sultan, and the heir Selim opposed each other. Shehzade Baezid, who lost the fight because Selima was supported by Qanuni's troops, hid in Iran with Shah Tahmasp. After lengthy bargaining, the Shah handed over Baezid to Selim's people, who immediately killed him and his sons.
In 1566, after the death of Kanuni, Hurrem Sultan's last will came true: her son Selim, similar to her both in appearance and in his behavior, ascended the throne and became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Selim II.
If we embrace the concept of “Female Sultanate”, which was proposed by one of the popular historians Ahmet Refik Altynay, as a period, then it began with Hurrem Sultan and lasted a whole century:
“The reign of the Sultan (mother of the Sultan - approx. transl.) began with the wife of Kanuni Hurrem Sultan and lasted a century during the times of Nurbanu, Safiye, Kösem and Turhan Sultan. Historians, starting from the 17th century, point to the “Female Sultanate” among the main factors influencing the decline of the Empire.
If we take this statement by Halil Inalcik (from the preface to “Love Letters of the Ottoman Sultans”) as a starting point for deriving the concept of “Female Sultanate”, we will notice one discrepancy: Hurrem Sultan died in 1558, her son Selim ascended the throne in 1566 year. And it is obvious that she could not start the “Female Sultanate”, since she never ruled as the mother of the Padishah.
Hurrem Sultan actually prevented her stepson Mustafa from ascending the throne and influenced Kanuni to strangle him. Because if Mustafa had ascended the throne, her own sons would have been killed and she would have lost her status. In this case, can attempts to save one’s position and the lives of one’s own sons be considered “personal interests”?
“Female Sultanate”: cause or effect?
Starting with Hurrem Sultan, 4 women followed one after another, who strongly influenced the Sultans, giving the name to this period as the “Women’s Sultanate”. However, we should not forget that the “Female Sultanate” is not the cause of the decline of the Ottoman Empire, it is its consequence.
Kanuni, after capturing Hungary and Baghdad (1520-1566), did not make conquests in the second half of his reign, and could not. 250 years after the founding of the Ottoman Empire, its borders reached the Roman Empire. In the west, Germany and Austria are populous; in the east - Iran. The army, which left Istanbul at the beginning of the summer, still remained at a distance impossible to carry out a capture. Due to the fact that the administration of the Empire was completely dependent on the Sultan, his stay for a long time outside of Istanbul, which was located at the same distance from the western and eastern borders, caused problems. Europeans, meanwhile, improved methods of protection and weapons. Expenses on trips began to significantly exceed profits. To the question “Women’s Sultanate gave birth to Hurrem Sultan?” we can give the answer: “It was generated by the period of the end of the campaigns, on which the system of conquering vast expanses and obtaining enormous military booty was based.”
However, we should not forget that the Ottoman Empire, which broke up into 24 states, as Ilber Ortaily emphasizes, still left a significant mark on history, like the Third Rome.
Women of the "Women's Sultanate"
Nurbanu Sultan- Haseki son of Hurrem, Selim II. When her son became governor, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, following tradition, did not go with him, but stayed in the Topkapi Palace. Nurbana quickly wrapped up Shehzade, who was left all alone. When Selim ascended the throne, she easily took over the harem, since at that time Hurrem had already died and Valide Sultan was not in the harem.
Safiye Sultan– Haseki son of Selim II, Murad III. She is from the Venetian family of Baffo, her father was the governor of the island of Corfu. During the reign of Murad III, Nurbanu as Valide Sultan and Safiye as Haseki constantly fought with each other.
Kösem Sultan– Haseks of Safiye's grandson, Ahmed I. Nurbanu and Safiye gained their authority in the harem when their husbands were governors away from Istanbul. And Kösem Sultan gained the greatest power during the reign of his sons Murad IV and Ibrahim, staying in the harem as Valide.
Turhan Sultan- mother of Mehmed IV. Fought with Kösem Sultan. In light of this, Kösem wanted to place another heir on the throne - Suleiman, whose mother was a simpleton, instead of Mehmed IV. As a result of this struggle, Turhan Sultan killed Kösem Sultan and imprisoned her. Mehmed IV continued his reign.
© Adnan Nur Baikal, 2001
The concubine who changed the history of the Ottoman Empire.Any Hollywood script pales in comparison with the life path of Roksolana, who became the most influential woman in the history of the great empire. Her powers, contrary to Turkish laws and Islamic canons, could only be compared with the capabilities of the Sultan himself. Roksolana became not just a wife, she was a co-ruler; They didn’t listen to her opinion; it was the only one that was correct and legal.
Anastasia Gavrilovna Lisovskaya (born c. 1506 - d. c. 1562) was the daughter of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky from Rohatyn, a small town in Western Ukraine, located southwest of Ternopil. In the 16th century, this territory belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and was constantly subject to devastating raids by the Crimean Tatars. During one of them, in the summer of 1522, the young daughter of a clergyman was caught by a detachment of robbers. Legend has it that the misfortune happened just before Anastasia’s wedding.
First, the captive ended up in Crimea - this is the usual route for all slaves. The Tatars did not drive valuable “live goods” on foot across the steppe, but carried them on horseback under vigilant guard, without even tying their hands, so as not to spoil the delicate girl’s skin with ropes. Most sources say that the Crimeans, struck by the beauty of Polonyanka, decided to send the girl to Istanbul, hoping to sell her profitably at one of the largest slave markets in the Muslim East.
“Giovane, ma non bella” (“young, but ugly”), Venetian nobles said about her in 1526, but “graceful and short in stature.” None of her contemporaries, contrary to legend, called Roksolana a beauty.
The captive was sent to the capital of the sultans on a large felucca, and the owner himself took her to sell her - history has not preserved his name. On the very first day, when the Horde took the captive to the market, she accidentally caught the eye of the all-powerful vizier of the young Sultan Suleiman I, the noble Rustem, who happened to be there - Pasha. Again, the legend says that the Turk was struck by the dazzling beauty of the girl, and he decided to buy her to give a gift to the Sultan.
As can be seen from the portraits and confirmations of contemporaries, beauty clearly has nothing to do with it - I can call this coincidence of circumstances with only one word - Fate.
During this era, the sultan was Suleiman I the Magnificent (Luxurious), who ruled from 1520 to 1566, considered the greatest sultan of the Ottoman dynasty. During the years of his rule, the empire reached the apogee of its development, including all of Serbia with Belgrade, most of Hungary, the island of Rhodes, significant territories in North Africa to the borders of Morocco and the Middle East. Europe gave the Sultan the nickname Magnificent, while in the Muslim world he is more often called Kanuni, which translated from Turkish means Lawgiver. “Such greatness and nobility,” the report of the 16th-century Venetian ambassador Marini Sanuto wrote about Suleiman, “was also adorned by the fact that he, unlike his father and many other sultans, had no inclination towards pederasty.” An honest ruler and uncompromising fighter against bribery, he encouraged the development of the arts and philosophy, and was also considered a skilled poet and blacksmith - few European monarchs could compete with Suleiman I.
According to the laws of faith, the padishah could have four legal wives. The children of the first of them became heirs to the throne. Or rather, one firstborn inherited the throne, and the rest often faced a sad fate: all possible contenders for supreme power were subject to destruction.
In addition to wives, the Commander of the Faithful had any number of concubines that his soul desired and his flesh required. At different times, under different sultans, from several hundred to a thousand or more women lived in the harem, each of whom was certainly an amazing beauty. In addition to women, the harem consisted of a whole staff of castrati eunuchs, maids of various ages, chiropractors, midwives, masseuses, doctors and the like. But no one except the padishah himself could encroach on the beauties belonging to him. All this complex and hectic economy was supervised by the “chief of the girls” - the eunuch of Kyzlyaragassy.
However, amazing beauty alone was not enough: the girls destined for the padishah’s harem were required to be taught music, dancing, Muslim poetry and, of course, the art of love. Naturally, the course of love sciences was theoretical, and the practice was taught by experienced old women and women experienced in all the intricacies of sex.
Now let’s return to Roksolana, so Rustem Pasha decided to buy the Slavic beauty. But her Krymchak owner refused to sell Anastasia and presented her as a gift to the all-powerful courtier, rightly expecting to receive for this not only an expensive return gift, as is customary in the East, but also considerable benefits.
Rustem Pasha ordered it to be fully prepared as a gift to the Sultan, in turn hoping to achieve even greater favor with him. The padishah was young; he ascended the throne only in 1520 and greatly appreciated female beauty, and not just as a contemplator.
In the harem, Anastasia receives the name Khurrem (laughing). And for the Sultan, she always remained only Khurrem. Roksolana, the name under which she went down in history, is just the name of the Sarmatian tribes in the 2nd-4th centuries AD, who roamed the steppes between the Dnieper and Don, translated from Latin as “Russian”. Roksolana will often be called, both during her life and after her death, nothing more than “Rusynka” - a native of Rus' or Roxolanii, as Ukraine was previously called.
The mystery of the birth of love between the Sultan and a fifteen-year-old unknown captive will remain unsolved. After all, there was a strict hierarchy in the harem, and anyone who violated it would face severe punishment. Often - death. The female recruits - adzhemi, step by step, first became jariye, then shagird, gedikli and usta. No one except the mouth had the right to be in the Sultan's chambers. Only the mother of the ruling sultan, the valide sultan, had absolute power within the harem, and decided who and when to share a bed with the sultan from her mouth. How Roksolana managed to occupy the Sultan’s monastery almost immediately will forever remain a mystery.
There is a legend about how Hurrem came to the attention of the Sultan. When new slaves (more beautiful and expensive than she) were introduced to the Sultan, a small figure suddenly flew into the circle of dancing odalisques and, pushing away the “soloist,” laughed. And then she sang her song. The harem lived according to cruel laws. And the eunuchs were waiting for only one sign - what to prepare for the girl - clothes for the Sultan’s bedroom or a cord used to strangle the slaves. The Sultan was intrigued and surprised. And that same evening, Khurrem received the Sultan’s scarf - a sign that in the evening he was waiting for her in his bedroom. Having interested the Sultan with her silence, she asked for only one thing - the right to visit the Sultan's library. The Sultan was shocked, but allowed it. When he returned from a military campaign some time later, Khurrem already spoke several languages. She dedicated poems to her Sultan and even wrote books. This was unprecedented at that time, and instead of respect it aroused fear. Her learning, plus the fact that the Sultan spent all his nights with her, created Khurrem's lasting fame as a witch. They said about Roksolana that she bewitched the Sultan with the help of evil spirits. And in fact he was bewitched.
“Finally, let us unite with soul, thoughts, imagination, will, heart, everything that I left mine in you and took with me yours, oh my only love!”, the Sultan wrote in a letter to Roksolana. “My lord, your absence has kindled a fire in me that does not go out. Have pity on this suffering soul and hurry up your letter so that I can find at least a little consolation in it,” answered Khurrem.
Roksolana greedily absorbed everything that she was taught in the palace, took everything that life gave her. Historians testify that after some time she actually mastered the Turkish, Arabic and Persian languages, learned to dance perfectly, recite her contemporaries, and also play according to the rules of the foreign, cruel country in which she lived. Following the rules of her new homeland, Roksolana converted to Islam.
Her main trump card was that Rustem Pasha, thanks to whom she got to the palace of the padishah, received her as a gift, and did not buy her. In turn, he did not sell it to the kyzlyaragassa, who replenished the harem, but gave it to Suleiman. This means that Roxalana remained a free woman and could lay claim to the role of the padishah’s wife. According to the laws of the Ottoman Empire, a slave could never, under any circumstances, become the wife of the Commander of the Faithful.
A few years later, Suleiman enters into an official marriage with her according to Muslim rites, elevates her to the rank of bash-kadyna - the main (and in fact, the only) wife and addresses her “Haseki,” which means “dear to the heart.”
Roksolana’s incredible position at the Sultan’s court amazed both Asia and Europe. Her education made scientists bow to her, she received foreign ambassadors, responded to messages from foreign sovereigns, influential nobles and artists. She not only came to terms with the new faith, but also gained fame as a zealous orthodox Muslim, which earned her considerable respect at court.
One day, the Florentines placed a ceremonial portrait of Hurrem, for which she posed for a Venetian artist, in an art gallery. It was the only female portrait among the images of hook-nosed, bearded sultans in huge turbans. “There was never another woman in the Ottoman palace who had such power” - Venetian ambassador Navajero, 1533.
Lisovskaya gives birth to the Sultan four sons (Mohammed, Bayazet, Selim, Jehangir) and a daughter, Khamerie. But Mustafa, the eldest son of the padishah’s first wife, Circassian Gulbekhar, was still officially considered the heir to the throne. She and her children became mortal enemies of the power-hungry and treacherous Roxalana.
Lisovskaya understood perfectly well: until her son became the heir to the throne or sat on the throne of the padishahs, her own position was constantly under threat. At any moment, Suleiman could become carried away by a new beautiful concubine and make her his legal wife, and order the execution of one of the old wives: in the harem, an unwanted wife or concubine was put alive in a leather bag, an angry cat and a poisonous snake were thrown in there, the bag was tied and a special stone chute was used to lower him with a tied stone into the waters of the Bosphorus. The guilty considered it lucky if they were simply quickly strangled with a silk cord.
Therefore, Roxalana prepared for a very long time and began to act actively and cruelly only after almost fifteen years!
Her daughter turned twelve years old, and she decided to marry her to... Rustem Pasha, who was already over fifty. But he was in great favor at court, close to the throne of the padishah and, most importantly, was something of a mentor and “godfather” to the heir to the throne, Mustafa, the son of the Circassian Gulbehar, Suleiman’s first wife.
Roxalana's daughter grew up with a similar face and chiseled figure to her beautiful mother, and Rustem Pasha with great pleasure became related to the Sultan - this is a very high honor for a courtier. Women were not forbidden to see each other, and the sultana deftly found out from her daughter about everything that was happening in the house of Rustem Pasha, literally collecting the information she needed bit by bit. Finally, Lisovskaya decided it was time to strike the fatal blow!
During a meeting with her husband, Roxalana secretly informed the Commander of the Faithful about the “terrible conspiracy.” Merciful Allah granted her time to learn about the secret plans of the conspirators and allowed her to warn her adored husband about the danger that threatened him: Rustem Pasha and the sons of Gulbehar planned to take the life of the padishah and take possession of the throne, placing Mustafa on it!
The intriguer knew well where and how to strike - the mythical “conspiracy” was quite plausible: in the East during the time of the sultans, bloody palace coups were the most common thing. In addition, Roxalana cited as an irrefutable argument the true words of Rustem Pasha, Mustafa and other “conspirators” that the daughter of Anastasia and the Sultan heard. Therefore, the seeds of evil fell on fertile soil!
Rustem Pasha was immediately taken into custody, and an investigation began: Pasha was terribly tortured. Perhaps he incriminated himself and others under torture. But even if he was silent, this only confirmed the padishah in the actual existence of a “conspiracy.” After torture, Rustem Pasha was beheaded.
Only Mustafa and his brothers were spared - they were an obstacle to the throne of Roxalana’s first-born, red-haired Selim, and for this reason they simply had to die! Constantly instigated by his wife, Suleiman agreed and gave the order to kill his children! The Prophet forbade the shedding of the blood of the padishahs and their heirs, so Mustafa and his brothers were strangled with a green silk twisted cord. Gulbehar went crazy with grief and soon died.
The cruelty and injustice of her son struck Valide Khamse, the mother of Padishah Suleiman, who came from the family of the Crimean khans Giray. At the meeting, she told her son everything she thought about the “conspiracy,” the execution, and her son’s beloved wife Roxalana. It is not surprising that after this Valide Khamse, the Sultan’s mother, lived for less than a month: the East knows a lot about poisons!
The Sultana went even further: she ordered to find in the harem and throughout the country other sons of Suleiman, whom wives and concubines gave birth to, and to take the lives of all of them! As it turned out, the Sultan had about forty sons - all of them, some secretly, some openly, were killed by order of Lisovskaya.
Thus, over forty years of marriage, Roksolana managed the almost impossible. She was proclaimed the first wife, and her son Selim became the heir. But the sacrifices did not stop there. Roksolana's two youngest sons were strangled. Some sources accuse her of involvement in these murders - allegedly this was done in order to strengthen the position of her beloved son Selim. However, reliable data about this tragedy has never been found.
She was no longer able to see her son ascend the throne, becoming Sultan Selim II. He reigned after the death of his father for only eight years - from 1566 to 1574 - and, although the Koran forbids drinking wine, he was a terrible alcoholic! His heart once simply could not withstand the constant excessive libations, and in the memory of the people he remained as Sultan Selim the drunkard!
No one will ever know what the true feelings of the famous Roksolana were. What is it like for a young girl to find herself in slavery, in a foreign country, with a foreign faith imposed on her. Not only not to break, but also to grow into the mistress of the empire, gaining glory throughout Asia and Europe. Trying to erase shame and humiliation from her memory, Roksolana ordered the slave market to be hidden and a mosque, madrasah and almshouse to be erected in its place. That mosque and hospital in the almshouse building still bear the name of Haseki, as well as the surrounding area of the city.
Her name, shrouded in myths and legends, sung by her contemporaries and covered in black glory, remains forever in history. Nastasia Lisovskaya, whose fate could be similar to hundreds of thousands of the same Nastya, Khristin, Oles, Mari. But life decreed otherwise. No one knows how much grief, tears and misfortunes Nastasya endured on the way to Roksolana. However, for the Muslim world she will remain Hurrem - LAUGHING.
Roksolana died either in 1558 or 1561. Suleiman I - in 1566. He managed to complete the construction of the majestic Suleymaniye Mosque - one of the largest architectural monuments of the Ottoman Empire - near which Roksolana’s ashes rest in an octagonal stone tomb, next to the also octagonal tomb of the Sultan. This tomb has stood for more than four hundred years. Inside, under the high dome, Suleiman ordered to carve alabaster rosettes and decorate each of them with a priceless emerald, Roksolana’s favorite gem.
When Suleiman died, his tomb was also decorated with emeralds, forgetting that his favorite stone was ruby.
Roksolans, or Sarmatians, were the name given to the tribes that once lived in the steppes of Ukraine. The daughter of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky was born in 1505 in the Carpathian Rohatyn at a time when the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire were in full control of the Ukrainian lands. In the spring of 1521, when the slave traders' galley. delivered Roksolana to the port of Istanbul, the girl was 16 years old. From this moment the biography of Roksolana, known to us, began, which was purchased as a gift to the young padishah Suleiman at the Istanbul slave market by the Sultan’s friend, Rustem Pasha. In the spring of 1521, when a galley of slave traders. delivered Roksolana to the port of Istanbul, the girl was 16 years old. From this moment the biography of Roksolana, known to us, began, which was purchased by the Sultan’s friend, Rustem Pasha, at the Istanbul slave market as a gift to the young padishah Suleiman. Later, Suleiman I received two nicknames at once: the Turks called him Kanuni, that is, the Lawgiver, and the Europeans called him the Magnificent. But then he was still a 25-year-old poet and dreamer, who had only recently ascended the throne after the death of his father Selim the Terrible. The young sultan was the owner of an impressive harem of 300 wives and concubines. There were women of all nations and colors - bought at the market, presented as gifts by dignitaries or sold by their own parents. The Sultan's harem, also called the seraglio, was located in the Top Kapi palace. The inhabitants of the harem themselves spent their days in idleness, caring only about maintaining their beauty. But this heavenly life did not suit many: the sultan, busy with business, gave his nights only to a select few, and the rest remained for years without male attention. The most desperate ones managed to betray their master. If the betrayal became known, the unfaithful woman would face a terrible punishment. She was sewn into a bag with a poisonous snake and lowered through a special chute into the dark waters of the Bosphorus. True, according to the rule existing in the harem, if for nine years the concubine had never received the attention of the Sultan, she could leave the harem with a good dowry. “Statistics” was kept by the chief eunuch - kiz-lar-aga. He drew up a schedule of “ascension to the bed” for all days of the week except Thursday, when the Sultan was preparing for Friday prayer. The concubine with whom the ruler was going to spend the night received an expensive gift in the evening. In the morning, if the bishop was satisfied, she was given another one. Having given birth to a child, she moved into the category of “lucky ones”, from which she could move to the position of an official wife - the Sultan had from four to eight of them. The mother of the eldest son, heir to the throne, bore the title of senior wife (haseki) and enjoyed significant influence in the seraglio. The power of the mother of the ruling sultan, Valide Khatun, was even greater. For the proximity to these two women and the ruler himself, real warriors fought in the harem, in which everything was used - denunciations, intrigues, murders. A young slave girl from Ukraine ended up in this snake tangle after the Sultan’s physician carefully examined her for physical defects. It looks like there were none. However, judging by the portraits, she did not shine with particular beauty, in full accordance with the words of the Venetian diplomat Bragadin, who wrote that the sultana was “more sweet than beautiful.” But there was something unusually attractive about her. While many young Polonian women were homesick for their relatives, our heroine looked forward with resilient determination and a smile. It is not for nothing that in Turkey she is often called Hurrem, that is, “laughing.” The first thing Roksolana had to do was take a course in science at the harem “academy”, where they taught the Turkish language, music, dancing and, of course, the ability to please men. In addition, Roksolana mastered the basics of versification and Arabic. On the very first night allotted to her according to the schedule, Roksolana surprised Suleiman with her knowledge - the well-read Sultan, endowed with poetic imagination, found his Scheherazade, with whom he could have a heart-to-heart talk. To the displeasure of the eunuchs, he began to increasingly spend nights with the red-haired Ukrainian woman, ignoring other concubines, who immediately accused their rival of witchcraft - in Turkey, as in Rus', red-haired women were often considered witches. The red-haired foreigner was treated with doubly suspicion. What saved Roksolana was that she converted to Islam. This happened shortly after she became pregnant. Roksolana already saw the goal ahead: her future son should become the heir of the padishah, and she herself should become the eldest wife. Many obstacles awaited her along this path. Suleiman already had an older wife, Circassian Makhidervan, and her son Mustafa was considered the heir. The mother of the Sultan Khamsa, from the family of Crimean khans, was also not going to give up power in the harem to the upstart. Suleiman also had a friend from his youth, the great vizier Ibrahim Pasha, to whom he was more attached than to any of his wives. Roksolana dealt with these obstacles gradually, luring other concubines, eunuchs, and maids to her side and giving birth to children for the Sultan. The first son, Mehmed, was born at the end of 1521. He was followed by his daughter Mikhrima and four more sons, of whom one died as an infant, and the youngest, Jihangir, was born crippled. For some reason, the ambitious concubine placed her main hopes on her third son Selim; it was not for nothing that he received the name of Suleiman’s father. Little by little rumors began to spread that Mahidervan's son, Mustafa, was unworthy to be Sultan. Hearing this, the Circassian woman immediately realized who was disbanding them, and publicly started a fight with her rival. Roksolana could have given her back, but she didn’t - she only showed the bruises and traces of scratches to the Sultan with silent reproach. After this, Suleiman noticeably cooled towards his eldest wife and her son. However, at that time the Sultan had no time for harem showdowns - the former dreamer turned into a stern warrior. Suleiman appeared in Istanbul extremely rarely, or only to spend another night with Roksolana. He completely ceased to be interested in other concubines, and many of them were released from the seraglio long before their deadline. In 1533, Sultan Suleiman declared Roksolana to be not just his eldest, but his only wife. This happened for the first time in Turkish history. In a hurry to consolidate her success, Roksolana accused Ibrahim Pasha of conspiracy, and on the orders of the Sultan he was strangled with a scarlet silk cord. Suleiman's trust in his wife was truly limitless. Rustem Pasha, who once ransomed her from the slave traders, became her right hand. Roksolana gave him her 12-year-old daughter Mikhrima as his wife, and later helped Rustem Pasha become the Grand Vizier. At one time, Rustem taught the heir Mustafa military affairs, and he still trusted his mentor and often visited his house. It was this that killed Mustafa, at the instigation of Roksolana. Rustem Pasha accused the prince of trying to involve him in a conspiracy against the Sultan. Suleiman believed the slander and in October 1553 summoned Mustafa to his headquarters, where the prince was strangled in front of his father. Upon learning of this, his mother, Mahidervan, lost her mind and soon died. Roksolana's triumph slightly spoiled the behavior of her youngest son, the lame Jihangir. He openly accused his mother of depriving the Ottoman Empire of an intelligent and noble heir in order to replace him with the insignificant drunkard Selim. Roksolana’s favorite, red-haired Selim, was indeed only interested in drink and women, but she, blinded by her mother’s love, did not want to notice this. The conversation with Jihangir proceeded in a raised voice, and the next morning the ill-fated prince was found dead in bed. Legend attributes his death to Roksolana. Selim's younger brother, Bayazid, who had not lost hope of ascending the throne, fled to neighboring Iran. Roksolana, realizing that Bayezid could pose a threat to Selim in the future, persuaded Suleiman to begin negotiations with the Iranian Shahin Shah about the extradition of his youngest son. Negotiations continued for a long time, but in the end Suleiman, in exchange for the return of one of the provinces captured by the Turks, received the heads of Bayezid and his five young children. All the time while the Sultan was on campaign, she ruled the empire - and ruled it quite successfully. Roksolana managed to enlist the support of the formidable Janissaries - she regularly increased their salaries and built new barracks for them with marble fountains (“like a harem,” the veterans grumbled). To replenish the treasury that was empty after numerous military campaigns, she allowed the opening of wine shops in the quarter where Christians lived and in the port areas of Istanbul, although wine was prohibited by the Koran. On her orders, the Golden Horn Bay was deepened and new piers were built in Galata, where ships with goods from all over the world began to arrive. The mosques and markets she founded, as well as hospitals and nursing homes, still stand in the city. People here still love Roksolana and are very offended when they hear that she is not a native Turkish. In the last years of her life, Roksolana was often sick. Suleiman practically did not leave her bed. During her illness, Suleiman ordered all the musical instruments in the palace to be broken and burned so as not to disturb Roksolana’s peace. When Roksolana died, he, not afraid of losing his authority, cried in front of his subjects. This happened on March 15, 1558. Reporting the death of Roksolana, the ambassadors of the European powers added in their urgent dispatches that changes in the policy of the Sublime Porte should not be expected; leading positions were still occupied by Roksolana’s people, designed to provide her son Selim with a path to the throne. And he actually ascended the throne after the death of Suleiman in 1566. But the reign of Selim, popularly nicknamed the Drunkard, resulted in the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps because there was no woman like Roksolana next to him. In the homeland of Anastasia Lisovskaya, in the town of Rohatyn, a monument to this outstanding woman was erected. And in Turkey itself, the Suleymaniye Mosque was built, which is also the tomb of Suleiman the Magnificent and his beloved wife Roksolana. continuation of the debate at the link: http://lady.webnice.ru/litsalon/?ac...e&v=685 SERIES "MAgnificent Century", see ONLINE http://kinobar.net/news/velikolepnyj_vek_smotret_onlajn/2013-09-29 -25
